This monograph presents a groundbreaking scholarly treatment of the German mathematician Jost
Bürgi's original work on logarithms Arithmetische und Geometrische Progreß Tabulen. It
provides the first-ever English translation of Bürgi's text and illuminates his role in the
development of the conception of logarithms for which John Napier is traditionally given
priority. High-resolution scans of each page of the his handwritten text are reproduced for the
reader and as a means of preserving an important work for which there are very few surviving
copies.The book begins with a brief biography of Bürgi to familiarize readers with his life and
work as well as to offer an historical context in which to explore his contributions. The
second chapter then describes the extant copies of the Arithmetische und Geometrische Progreß
Tabulen with a detailed description of the copy that is the focus of this book the 1620 Graz
manuscript. A complete facsimile of the text is included in the next chapter along with a
corresponding transcription and an English translation a transcription of a second version of
the manuscript (the Gdansk manuscript) is included alongside that of the Graz edition so that
readers can easily and closely examine the differences between the two. The final chapter
considers two important questions about Bürgi's work such as who was the copyist of the Graz
manuscript and what the relationship is between the Graz and Gdansk versions. Appendices are
also included that contain a timeline of Bürgi's life the underlying concept of Napier's
construction of logarithms and scans of all 58 sheets of the tables from Bürgi's text. Anyone
with an appreciation for the history of mathematics will find this book to be an insightful and
interesting look at an important and often overlooked work. It will also be a valuable resource
for undergraduates taking courses in the history of mathematics researchers of the history of
mathematics and professors of mathematics education who wish to incorporate historical context
into their teaching.
